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Sunday, July 6, 2014

John Lackey is not happy about being beat by Nelson Cruz due to PED history

On Saturday, John Lackey and Nelson Cruz opposed each other in the second game of a doubleheader between the Red Sox and Orioles.

Cruz had himself a fine game after going 5-for-5, which included slugging a home run, tying him with Jose Abreu for the MLB lead at 27, and smashing a couple of doubles.

After the game, Lackey was not happy about being hit around by a player who was once suspended for his ties to performance-enhancing drugs. And the veteran pitcher did about everything but come out and say it to the Baltimore Sun.

“I'm not even going to comment on him,” Lackey said. “I've got nothing to say about him. There are some things that I would like to say, but I'm not going to. You guys forget pretty conveniently about stuff.”
I think we can read between the lines here and figure out what Lackey is referring to.

In one regard, Lackey seems like he is making an excuse for his poor outing. He is simply being a poor loser, if you will. On the other hand, his gripes are somewhat warranted, because judging by the All-Star Game voting, fans don't seem to care much at all about past connections to PEDs.

With that said, there is a testing system in place and Cruz hasn't violated it this year. So we should hope that Cruz's stellar campaign is not aided by PEDs, despite what Lackey suggests.